We’ve been getting quite a few newbie email marketers coming into RocketResponder that have this thought that the larger their list, the better their results will be. But they are actually finding the opposite is happening.
The phenomenon actually happens because most smaller lists have a more personal approach to them. It’s true that you can be personal with a larger list, but when it’s small it tends to be a small list of people you have a stronger relationship with.
Another way to think of it is this.. If you talk to 10 people every day, how long will you talk to them for? Now if you have 100 people every day, that time shrinks. At some point when your list size gets too big you can’t keep up with the personal level.
This isn’t a reason to stop building your list, but it’s why you shouldn’t sweat having a small list now. Take the time to interact with that list in a way you couldn’t if you had a larger list. You can ask them questions and have them reply to the email, for instance.
Tim, this is actually a conscious decision I made about my general business list, because when people join, I’m actually ready to give them one-on-one attention. So for me, THAT list is better when it’s small and very personal. It means I can give real value that can lead to future services sold, and I can only provide those to a limited number of people.
Now I plan to build some niche lists for the same business that will cater to larger numbers of individuals in a specific area of business. But what I promote to them is something I can scale. So I would think your ability to scale should be in line with how you try to build your list.